Any Gorillaz fans will recognize the name Roots Manuva, he gave a spectacular performance on their song All Alone on their crown jewel Demon Days. He’s a big deal in the UK, but kinda unheard of up here in Canada. But he should be played a lot more! His sound can go from anything to fun alt hip hop: ex. Join The Dots to introspective sad rap much like the stuff coming out of Seattle (Grieves comes to mind) such as songs like Sinny Sin Sins where he talks about his Pentecostal upbringing. He can also do songs that capture hearts much like Method Man’s You’re All I Need, Roots has Dreamy Days a ballad like love song sure to be relatable to more than a few. Bring it all together with muddy, dark, and often overpowering beats and we get Run Come Save Me, a hip hop album not to be missed.

If there was ever a front heavy album it would be Grouplove’s Big Mess. It’s just so easy to take shots at this album, but I’ll refrain because I like these guys. The A-Side is pretty catchy, but it falls apart half way through, the voice gets grating, the lyrics get juvenile, the music becomes so repetitive it just makes me feel like I’m stuck in a mall. Grouplove has made some solid tunes, but they can’t really make a solid album, I feel like if they just spent more time putting together a concept album we could really have something to write home about, but for now we can snag the catchy pop tracks and leave the annoying mall music behind.

Riding With The King was an overall boring experience, it just did next to nothing for me. A couple songs were pretty alright, but nothing was really worth writing home about. The problem with it is that they both kinda just jammed more than they actually put an album together. I know it’s dangerous to compare genre’s but when two other heavyweights (Kanye West and Jay-Z) put together an album we got Watch The Throne, a truly amazing album that was full of the two lyricists trying to one up each other. Not the case with Riding With The King, it was just two legends hanging out and kinda hoping something great would happen, it didn’t.

Love it, it really fits the overall vibe of the album, and is just really beautiful.

Want to Own on Vinyl?:

It’s funny, before sitting down to listen to the album as a whole I would’ve said absolutely, but seeing as there is a lot of dead space between the songs I’m really into, I’d say no now.

Final Thoughts:

I got into Zion I at the same time as other artists like Blackalicious, The Mighty Underdogs, and Brother Ali. So he automatically gets points for being grouped with those groups who were really important to my musical formation in High school. The Take Over is a pretty okay inclusion in my music library, the only problem is that there are quite a few misses for me on this album, but the songs that land are solid.